I'm in S5 now (how did that happen?!), and just watched I Believe The Children Are Our Future. Unlike The End, I think that Dean has learned the wrong lesson from this one. He, and Sam, say that they learned that lying to children may be valuable, even desired. Instead, though, I think that this ep, and most of the last season and a half, have been showing how corrosive lies are, especially when they seem plausible (even if only plausible in a freaky-deaky world).

Sam and Dean are very practical. They lie or tell the truth when it suits their purposes, and I can understand that. Sam seems to see when the truth will work better than a lie, but is just as willing to lie when needed. I can understand this in some of their day to day adventures. But if anyone had just told Sam the truth, the apocalypse would have been averted. I understand Sam blaming himself for this, but honestly, it really pisses me off to see the same people who lied to, or at least misled, Sam blaming him for basically believing their lies.

I think that the situation with Jesse ended with a win for the good guys. It's not what they wanted, but Jesse is aware of the situation. He seems to believe Sam's version, which is the most accurate one. He doesn't really trust Sam and Dean, but he seems to understand that the demons are the big problem. Can he raise himself up wisely and safely? I don't know. Maybe he'll fall in with others who take advantage of him. Maybe his absolute power will corrupt absolutely. But he seems to be a good kid. Maybe he'll find a mentor he can trust. Maybe he can end a force for good. It seems like going off to Australia or wherever may indeed be his best shot.

I have a great desire to write more, but must get ready for a meeting during my not!vacation. Sigh.

I've been disappointed they didn't do anything with Jesse after that -- I was sure he would come up again. A kid with that much power could definitely provide a plot point or two.

I think this episode was sort of clunky with the honesty issue -- the whole thing begins because adults don't tell children the truth about the tooth fairy, etc. In the end, I think what Sam and Dean felt was not so much that lying to children is a good thing, but that they wished there wasn't anything frightening for a child to know.

Conversely, I've been very thankful the producers seemed to forget that plot thread as soon as it was left dangling.

I obviously need to re-watch, because what I remember most, other than the shock of seeing Castiel willing to kill a child, was the annoyance of Dean thinking it was cool that Jesse could exorcise a demon with his mind while he was always horrified and sometimes punching Sam when he did so.

I would imagine that if Jesse was Dean's brother he'd be even more horrified than how shocked he was at Sam's reveal in S4. Dean having one set of rules for his family and one for everyone else has pretty much been there since year one. If not week.

It does seem kind of odd that they wouldn't come back to the Antichrist, but I suppose that Jesse might be even harder to find now that he's actually hiding. I guess I wasn't all that surprised by Castiel, who has shown a willingness to go for expediency in the past.

ION, I think I may have a toaster already. Whee! I think I have my cousin hooked, even though she tends to be more of a procedurals fan.

And, completely OT, has anyone figured out cutting and pasting from previous posts and reading white font with an iPad? I lurve the iPad for most things, but reading and posting here with it is getting frustrating.

I think they miscalculated when they put that sort of power on the show (and the relatively simple premise of making an antichrist) because there should be more Jesses all over the place as power plays, being controlled by the bad guys. I don't think my reasoning is the same as Matt's, but I don't see how they could dig themselves out from underneath that one, unless you end up with a new passell of special kids. They'd be jumping through hoops explaining why the series isn't over yet, so banishing him to Australia narrative is the best they could do.

No, that's pretty much my objection to it too.

See, I go back and forth. In my mind, sometimes writers are gods, who can do anything, and I want to see them do their magic. I want to see ideas that I can't even imagine, with impossible situations fixed, no, better than fixed, made whole and perfect. In this world, I'd like to see what they could do with Jesse. But, in my mind, sometimes writers are people. This side has grown, since I know some. They may be good, brilliant even, but they still must work within certain parameters, and cannot necessarily make a story work just by willing it so. In this world, I'm sadly with ita and Matt. Not that I would be sad to be with ita and Matt, just...

I just watched The Song Remains The Same. It was so heartbreaking. I think it was one of the most depressing eps so far. It's not that anything so bad actual happens, I suppose, it's just so hopeless. Also, I can understand angels being shits. I can understand why it's good for the show for them to be not good, even bad. But it just breaks my heart to see their soullessness. And I just can't wrap my brain around angels without god in this world, Sharon Shinn's books notwithstanding. I seem to be ok with demons without god, or at least without an active, present god, but not angels.

I like angels without God for a few reasons--I think God also unbalances the story, and his absence from exactly where you expect him, from his not designed for facets original creations conjures more questions than us without him--I can theorise that we were created to grow to a point where we don't need him anymore because we are in his image, but what if he doesn't clean up after himself? Are they our crossing guards? Chamber maids? What drives and rewards them?

And I never really articulated that angle before, but that's what I'd been getting out of the show through the end of S6. And I'm good with that. In fact, it gives the story more reason to go past S5 for me.

I irritated myself by reading a fic I knew had the potential, but I'm just chilling myself out with two things a) I knew she was doing this to John and b) maybe this is just the John she needs for the story, not the John she sees in the show.

Nevertheless, fuck this John:

It’s also that Sam’s point about their father, about how unimportant Dean and Sam had been to him, is still eating at him. He can’t stop thinking about it. And not just in an all over… haunting type of way, every once in a while something sticks him like a goddamn knife. He’d known that his father was possessed because he’d told Dean he was proud of him. He’d called his father for help a hundred times and he’d been ignored. He’d had a son that he’d actually taken out for father-son things that didn’t involve knives and gore and never told Dean that he had another younger brother.

Why you gonna make him out of canon? What'd he do to deserve that? Die to save Dean or something? Sam reach a point where he could articulate both forgiveness and love for him? Pfah. Irrelevant.

Excuse me while I go post to [link] It's been way too long.